REPOST: This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Ordinary people’s stories can change the world’s views about Africa We cannot see salary data in the faces of others, but most of us have similar mental images that structure how we think about poverty in Africa. Search Google Images for ‘African poverty’ to see how yours match up. Dilapidated housing. Tattered shirts. Blank stares. Bellies protruding from parasitic infections. Skin clinging to bones from starvation. Tears. The visit to South Africa by French economist and author of Capital in the 21st Century, Thomas Piketty, should lead us to reflect on how we understand poverty. To speak…

I have a chapter in the just-published book Communication, Culture, and Human Rights in Africa (Bala A. Musa and Jerry Domotaub, editors). My chapter is called “Media Activism, Youth Culture and Human Rights Campaigns for the MTV Generation,” and it looks at the organization Invisible Children that focuses on the ongoing conflict in Northern Uganda. I wrote about the Invisible Children for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s a rare example of an organization that was born out of a media production, and the organization continues to be very media savvy. 2) The organization is very successful at attracting young people. 3) I think the original documentary (called Invisible Children:…